[Jeroen]

As some of you will know Mrs. D is into costuming. She makes her own and loves showing them off with her friends. The other day she and her friends got invited by an event organisation in Bad Nenndorf, Germany. They were hosting a Napoleon type of event and they needed extra’s. All meals and hotel would be provided free of charge! They only needed to travel to and from Bad Nenndorf, which is about 450 kilometers from where we live in the Netherlands. No problem, Mrs. D told her friends. Jeroen loves to drive, he will take us. So me and my Jaguar got roped in. The free meals and hotel only applied to the extra’s in period costume. So I dropped Mrs D and party at the hotel on Friday afternoon and drove on for another 25 minutes or so to Hannover. Had not been to Hannover for decades. But I figured, it would be a better place to amuse myself for two days than picturesque, but tiny Bad Nenndorf.

I had booked a small hotel near the Central Station, right smack in the centre and adjacent to the old city. I wondered around the old town in the evening and had a nice dinner. In all honesty, Hannover is not that great a town. There is not an awful lot to see and do, but I found two interesting museums. There is a general aviation museum (this thread) and not too far away from Hannover is also a Helicopter museum. I managed to visit both. Helicopter thread will follow shortly.

The Hannover Aviation museum is on the outskirts of town. Too far to walk from the city centre. https://www.luftfahrtmuseum-hannover.de/index.php/en/

It is not particular big, but it has an interesting collection spread over two halls.

Here goes:

This is an overview of the first hall as you enter.



Mostly WW1 and very early days of military aviation here. Most of these aircrafts are replica’s.

Here a favourite of me and Snoopy, the Sopwith Camel. From 2017 onwards this British fighter dominated the skies above Europe. It was superior to what the Germans had, e.g. the Albatros. Only the Fokker DI and subsequent models had similar agility.



The Fokker Triplane was designed to match the Sopwith Camel with agility and climbing speed. Its one downside was its lower air speed. The Fokker D1 is made famous by Snoopy’s adversary the Red Baron. It was actually a guy called Manfred from Richthofen. He managed 80 air victories, before he got hit by ground fire and crashed.

There are no original Fokker DRI anymore. But there are plenty of airworthy replica’s about. I have seen the odd one at some airshow la ong time ago. The museum had an interesting video playing were 7 of these Fokker replica’s fly in formation!



Of course, Anthony Fokker was a brilliant (Dutch) airplane designer and accomplished pilot. However, he was also very much a ruthless business man who sold his planes to anybody that came up with the goodies.

After a British and a Dutch design time for a French WW1 Fighter. the Nieuport 17. A relative small, but very agile. It was flown by many, obviously, French squadrons, but also by the some British and American squadrons.

Initially its machine gun was mounted over and above the propellor arc, so did not need to be synchronised with the propellor. Unfortunately, the early Lewis machine guns came with only 47 rounds, so the pilot had to replace the magazine in the air!



The museum has hundreds and hundreds of models as well. Pretty good quality in terms of build and painting overall. I have taken quite a few snaps of various models that for some reason or the other caught my eye.





Not only did they have this Junker model, they also had a very nice real one! This is the Junker F13 and it is considered the very first real commercial transport aircraft. It was one of the earliest aircraft designed specifically for civil purposes in 1919 (end of WW1). It was even exported to the USA as well. The Lufthansa used the F13 as the backbone of its fleet up to WW2.



Huge Graf Zeppelin model hanging from the ceiling. The model is huge, but this thing was huge in real life too. You get a feeling for the size, when you start looking at some of the details. Eg. laddersleading to each engine/propellor. They would actually, in flight, go down those ladders to check and even fix an engine!



Most people, even if they don’t know anything about airplanes, will recognise this particular one; The Spirit of St Louis. Although that is not its type or Manufacturer. Lindbergh named it in honour of the St. Louis Raquettes club who supported him.

It was purpose build by Ryan airlines at the time. It had a for those days phenomenal range of 4000 nautical miles.

Charles Lindbergh crossed, single handed the Atlantic ocean, from New York to Paris in 33,5 hours. An absolute first!

The original Spirit of St. Louis is hanging from the ceiling in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.



Here a German design, the Focke Wulf Fw44. It was used as an initial and aerobatic trainer aircraft. It proved to be an extremely successful design. It was built under license in several countries, such as Argentina, Brazil, Finland, Sweden and Turkey.



The museum has quite a number of gliders as well. Here is an unusual powered glider that is being restored. It was designed and built in the 50s. The engine is located in the middle of the fuselage. The propellor sits in the middle of the rudder!







A few other things on display. Airplane toys! Boy would I have liked to have this model kit. Eat your heart out Airfix!!



Finally, for this hall at least, another Fokker, the EIII. These were the first fighter that could fire a machine gun through the propellor arc, due to clever synchronisation mechanism. (Initially they just put little armour plates on the inside of the propellor where the bullets might hit, did not last very long!)

[Jeroen]

We move to the second hall, adjacent to the first. Initially I had not even seen the second hall!. So I thought it was a very small museum. It is small, but the second hall has a lot of aviation stuff crammed into it as you will see.

Let’s start with a variety of models. All behind glass and I did not have a polariser filter on my camera, so some glare here and there.

I was fascinated by this Catapultship, the Ostmark, from 1938. Apparently the Luftwaffe had four of these vessels in operation. It would shoot the (sea) planes with a steam katapult (Von Heinkel). After its mission the sea plane would land and they would hoist it back on board.

The Ostmark hosted some 500 successful launches and recoveries. She was torpedoed in 1940 in the Canal by British torpedo’s.





I had not realised the Germans also had radar from as early on as beginning 1941. This is a model of one the German Radar FuMG65, Wurzburg Riese. It had a range of about 45 miles and was operated by 6 people. Diameter of the radar about 7,5 meters.

Several of these units were installed along the Channel from mid 1941 onwards, pointing towards England. The Brits, not to be outdone by ze Germans, raided a place in Bruneval, where they took most of the important parts of the radar and kidknapped the crew of one of these units and brought everything back to Blighty in 1942. They invented very quickly afterwards a successful jamming method, the so called Windows, short alumunium strips to blind the radar.





i have always appreciated the Stuka for its appearances. Unusual plane, dive bomber. The Stuka’s had sirens mounted to the wheel struts. A little propellor drove it when it dived. Terrifying sound. Even so, the Stuka was never a big succes. It had a pretty low speed and it was quite difficult handling it during the dive. For a dive bomber that is not a good thing!



I came across this model of the Consolidated B-24 Liberator. Anorak fact: Famous Hollywood legend, James Steward flew the B-24 as a pilot during WW2.



Some very nice submarine models. The German submarines are known, to date, as U-boats. It stands for Unterseeboot (Under the sea boat). This is is type VII C, the U-995 which was operational during 1944-45. The original can still be seen and visited in Kiel!



Another U-boat



If you have read some of my other threads/posts, you know I am a sucker for slide rules. I have several, including a Breitling watch with a sliding bevel and an original ASA E6 B flight computer (just a very fancy flight slide rule)

Here a German navigation slide rule.



The museum has this vintage simulator on display. It is actually not so much a flight simulator as a mechanic simulator. It was used to teach aviation mechanics.





This device is often recognised by many people. Which is quite amazing as at some point during the war it was one of the BIG German secret. It is of course, an original Engima, coding and deciphering machine. At the time the code was unbreakable, till 1942, when those plucky Brits again, managed to get their hands on one.



Now we come to a very different section of the museum. Lots of different engines on display.

Here various Lycoming engines. Interestingly enough, many of the single engine propellor planes I used to fly have Lycoming engines today. And guess what, in essence the design has not change much. They are a bit more powerful, a bit more fuel efficient, but the basis remained the same.



As TeamBHP is a car forum, I try to make a connection to the automotive world in these sort of threads. Here you have it; Porsche used to make aero engines as well. This here is is your typical aviation boxer engine. Air cooled, 6 cylinder opposite flat engine. The PFM 3200 Aero engine!!

This aero engine is an actual derivative from the original 911 engine. It has an interesting feature, it has a one handle throttle/mixture/prop operation. All mechanical of course, but still. I did not have it on the various Cessna’s I have flown.



These vintage aviation engine are always very photogenic. Look at this, beautiful!



A very interesting cut-away, a Junkers Jumo engine. It is a two stroke Diesel, with two opposing pistons!. Produced about 880HP. This engine was developed in the early 1930s.

[Jeroen]

Some more glorious and magnificent looking engines!



This is probably the most famous airplane engine of them all; the Rolls Royce Merlin. It is a 12 cylinder, V-12 with carburator and 2 stage super charger. It produces over 1000 HP.

You will find the Merlin in a number of Allied airplanes, such as the Lancaster, Hurricane, Spitfire, Mustang, Mosquito etc. Throughout its life span (1935-50) the output was steadily increased.

One of its initial short comings was that during negative G-manoevres, the carburator would stop working. It was, again, a Brit, who came up with the solution. It was a lady technician that managed to design some specific membranes that solved the problem.



Love this poster, I need one for my garage!



I am typing this on May 5th. In the Netherlands this is Liberation day where we celebrate the end of WW2 in the Netherlands. On May 4th we remember all war casualties. We always get one of the British Lancasters to perform a fly over across war cemeteries in Belgium and the Netherlands. For many elderly people, hearing those four Merlins thundering away will always be a very special occasion. Turn up your volume and watch/listen to this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ju2Z0ZHr0Jg

Also Roll Royce. Still impressive, but you will agree; it doesn’t look half as good as the Merlin! That’s progress for you. And people wonder why I only drive classic cars!



There are a number of different jet engines on display. Very interesting to see them all together here.





A cut away jet turbine engine. It is impressive of course, but the only thing that moves is the rotor!



I found another very unusual model. This is the Junkers Ju 322 Mammut. A massive military glider!!



Or how about this one: The remarkable Heinkel He 111-Z1. I had to look it up, but this contraption really did exist and did fly. And not too bad either.



Next some more real planes and quite the collection it is: You are looking at a Yak-18 trainer/aerobatic, an Antonov An-2R and a MIG 15.



The AN-2R is a massive plane, huge radial engine (990HP). More than 18000 of these flying trucks were produced, only a quarter for military purposes. This was a very rugged plane, could take a two tonnes pay load and land it just about anywhere. There are still some flying. We have one here in the Netherlands too!



The MIG 15 does not need an introduction.







Here some more well recognizable aircraft



The Spitfire MK XIV, 1944. this one had the RR Griffon engine. A somewhat lesser known engine than the Merlin, but it produces a heck of a lot more power, 2050HP. These engines were fitted on some Lancasters and other bombers too.



The Messerschmitt Me 109 G-2. This particular one was saved from the Mediterranean Sea in 1988 and was reconstructed in this museum by its volunteers. It was shot down over Sardinia in 1943. Pilot made his escape, but died the following year in a dogfight over Germany.



A Focke-wulf Fw 190. More than 22000 of these fighters were produced. The blue grey colour means it belong to the Reichsverteidigung (Defence of the German Reich). The red colour the rear fuselage means this is an aircraft of the German Fighter Wing n. 1

[Jeroen]

As seen from the MIG 15 cockpit; A Mercedes (!?). a F104 Starfighter and an Alouette.



The F104 Starfighter was designed in the USA in the early 1950s. It was considered to be a rocket with tiny wings. Even for today’s standards it was seriously fast (Mach 2.2). It said numerous speed and altitude records in its time.

This is the G version. Which stands for, wait for it, Germany!! Compared to earlier models this version had some additional structural improvements and it came with a very sophisticated radar and navigation systems. State of the art in those year! Some 2300 of these F104 were licensed build in Canada, the Netherlands (Fokker again), Belgium, Italy, Germany and Japan.

It was considered a very demanding aircraft to fly. The German Luftwaffe managed to crash 292 F104s, killing 108 pilots in the proces. It became known as the widow maker! In German politics the period in which this happened is known as Starfighter Krise. (Starfighter Crisis). Here in the Netherlands we had our own Starfighter Krise. We did have crashes, but not as many as the Germans. But our Prince Bernard, the husband of then Queen Juliana, was found to be on the take of Lockheed! So it became a constitutional crisis!!







you can argue, but when a plane looks like this, it is definitely bad ass!!



Some more Alouette’s here in Hannover! This is the Alouette II. Noticeable different from the version III I reported on a few weeks ago! have a look here:

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/comme...elicopter.html (The Alouette - a great little helicopter!)



A few more overall images of hall 2 and its exhibits









They had an interesting display in which you could practice your shooting capabilities. Pretty cool!



One of the more recent GE Aircraft engines, the famous CF6-50. Huge bypass jet engine. Used on various Airbus, DC10, KC10, Boeing 747s.





Then I encountered something I assume is German humor. Don’t shoot the messenger. This is the urinal in the Hannover Aviation museum.





An interesting use of Canopies!!



Finally, and this is quite sobering, this image. I found myself staring at this huge photograph. It measures about 1 x 1,5 meters. It shows a town that has been bombed. Notice how not a single roof is left.



It took me a while to figure out I was looking at Hannover alt Stad (the old Hannover City centre). Allied bombing more or less flattened it completely. Nothing of this tremendous horror is visible in town. The Germans did a great job of restoring the old town to its former glory. I had not realised when I walked around town that none of the building is less than 70-80 years old. Very commendable and very different to Rotterdam which was also completely flattened, by the Germans during the first few days of invading the Netherlands. Rotterdam has been rebuild too, but with modern architecture. There is not a single old brick left.

Regardless, it is one thing looking at all these war machines, but the image of the bombed Hannover city centre is a stark reminder of what these war machines are capable of. Obviously not the machines as such, but the men and women who order them and control them.

All in all, a very nice and hugely interesting little museum. Well worth a visit if you find yourself in Hannover.

Jeroen

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[V.Narayan]

Another wonderful and well written museum thread by our very own Flying Dutchman.

Thank you Jeroen for sharing these threads with us and all the effort you take to write out the details and the stories behind these wonderful machines. In my eyes no machine is more beautiful than an aircraft. I hope I don't get lynched on this car mad forum. But seriously your threads are a delight to go through.

[bikertillidie]

Loved this thread and the signage on top the urinal ��
Subscribing to this one.

[cdrajeevkumar]

As always, a magnificent and read-worthy thread by @Jeroen! Very captivating read and enjoyed the associated photos too!!

Eagerly await your next adventure converted to a post!

[Hayek]

Amazing Jeroen. Hanover is the kind of place that most of us will never visit - so thanks a lot for taking us on a virtual tour there. Have been to the Air & Space Museum in DC but must say never made such deep observations of the exhibits.